Tunze 9004 foam

[nano427]

Been running a Tunze 9004 for several months. I've always had to have the air adjustment almost all the way closed to keep from getting overly wet skimmate. I accidentally left the skimmer unplugged overnight. Now foam production is way way down. I now have to open the air valve all they way. It is producing dry foam now and seems to be working fine. But my question is why do I now have to have the air valve fully open when just the night before I had to have it almost fully closed? I checked the basics like salt creep blockage, snails, etc and I didn't see any issues.

 

[nano427]

Problem fixed! For anybody following along, the problem was a little sludge built up in the nipple of the pump where the air line pushes on. I think it happened because the skimmer was off for a while and allowed the gunk build up.

 

[rvitko]

Is it possibly submerged very deeply? That will tend to cause both issues. The skimmer should never have more than half the intake grate submerged, between 1/4 and 1/2 is ideal. Also, keep in mind that small skimmers do skim wet, it generally is not realistic to expect dark/thick skimmate as there is not the column height to allow the skimmate to dry. I would typically expect with everything set correctly a skimmate about the color of iced tea and the cup needing to be emptied every 3-7 days depending on waste load.